I Married the Emperor to Kill Him novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Peace Banquet

Severen's hand stayed on Cassien's cheek.

It was warm and dry, the same hand that had taught Cassien to hold a foil when he was seven.

Cassien took his wrist and lifted it away from his face.

"Don't touch me," he said.

Severen smiled and let his arm drop.

"You've picked up his habits already. The wrist."

Cassien let go.

"We still have five minutes, Cass. Sit down. Let's talk about what you do next."

"I know what I do next."

He opened the door and walked out into the throne room.

He did not look at any of them.

He walked down the middle of the floor, past Corvain and the woman in white furs, and up the steps of the throne.

Isandor was still standing.

He looked at Cassien's face once.

"Court is adjourned," he said.

Isandor's private dining room still smelled of last night's fire.

Ilvessa shut the door herself and put her back against it.

Cassien told them everything standing up, in the flat voice he had used for the lists of the dead at Tarrow Ford.

When he stopped, nobody spoke.

Ilvessa's knuckles had gone white on the head of her cane.

Isandor walked to the window and stood with his back to them, his good hand in a fist on the sill.

"He watched the beam go in," he said.

"Yes."

"And then he let me break my arm on it."

"He didn't know it would be you."

"No." Isandor turned around. "He knew it would be you later, with a knife in front of my court."

He went to the door and pulled it open.

"Captain."

The guard outside came to attention.

"Take the Ostrel envoy to the cells. Chain him. If he weeps, chain him tighter."

"Stop," said Ilvessa.

"He came in under a white flag, Isandor. He has the King of Ostrel's daughter on his arm and twenty thousand men on your border."

"He sold my husband to me to be killed."

"And this morning three hundred people watched him cry over his little brother."

She laid her hand on his arm.

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